01 December 2023 , 13:26
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An up and coming trainer has landed his dream role from the money he made training horses for some of the biggest blockbusters of the film and TV world.
Robbie Llewelllyn, 32, is midway into his second season as a racehorse trainer based in Wroughton near Swindon. He has already surpassed his previous best with eight winners this campaign, success which has helped him improve the quality of his string.
He owes his position on the ladder to his own resourcefulness in finding work in the movie-making business and also selling hens when he was short of money during the pandemic.
Llewellyn, from Cowbridge, got into racing working in the leading Welsh stables of Evan Williams, David Brace and Tim Vaughan before his career took an unusual turn.
“I needed to earn a few quid and fell into the film world,” he said. “They were filming on the beach where Christian Williams is based and looking for local people who were six foot and could ride.”
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He secured a job with The Devilshorsemen, the film industry’s go-to specialists for all things equine.
“I was the horse trainer on Dream Horse when we had 40 horses on that production, working on The Crown, Game Of Thrones, Outlaw King and all the Coral and Wiliam Hill adverts. That put us in a position to be able to do our own thing.”
Robbie Llewellyn worked on Game Of Thrones before setting up as a trainer (Sky)When he was put on furlough during the pandemic, Llewellyn found an additional source of income in poultry.
“I went and sold chickens through Covid,” he said. “I’d done it since I was a kid. I called it ‘Robbie’s Roosters’. There was an egg shortage and, having done it for a long time, I had all the contacts.
“So through Covid Ii sold 9,000 hens over three months across south and west Wales. They would be dropped into me on a Monday and gone by Wednesday.”
He went on: “All that put enough money in the kitty to train. I moved up from Wales and took on one barn with a bit of a dream and three horses, and I owned two of them, always knowing I could fall back on the film industry if the training didn’t work out.
“Someone from my background would probably never have been able to afford to train coming through the stablehand route.
“Now we have 24 in training and another 20 pre-trainers as well. We were quite lucky last year with Loup De Maulde who got us going. He improved 33lb in handicaps and people started to send us a few horses and we are rolling now.
“We’ve grown a lot in 12 months and we just need a Saturday horse now. My most expensive horse is £12,000 and we’ve done well but we want to be on the biggest stage.”